Beijing rejects WTO wish list
FOO CHOY PENG in Shanghai
Beijing has discredited the extraordinary
list of concessions Washington last month
claimed the mainland would make as its
price for entry to the World Trade
Organisation.
Sources said mainland negotiators - in
preliminary contacts with Japanese
counterparts at the weekend, hours after
Nato's bombing of the Chinese embassy in
Belgrade - had advised Tokyo against
using the list as a basis for WTO
negotiations.
"We told them we do not recognise the list
and so they should not use it as the basis
for negotiations," a mainland negotiator
said.
The latest twist marks a toughening of
Beijing's WTO bargaining stance after
news of Nato's accidental missile strike on
the Chinese embassy in Belgrade.
Minister for Foreign Trade & Economic
Co-operation Shi Guangsheng strongly
condemned the bombing, with Xinhua
reporting he had convened a special
meeting yesterday morning among staffers
and other trade officials to denounce the
"barbarous" attack.
The news agency said Mr Shi blasted the
"hypocritical" nature of the "so-called
human rights trumpeted by the US".
Beijing's list of concessions - unilaterally
released by top US trade negotiator
Charlene Barshefsky's office during
Premier Zhu Rongji's North American visit
last month - was surprising in scope and
depth of tariff cuts and offered
concessions in key areas of US interest
such as banking, insurance, and
telecommunications.
On Thursday, Mr Shi told European Trade
Commissioner Sir Leon Brittan the list had
some inaccuracies, but did not entirely
discredit it.
Beijing and Washington are due to resume
WTO talks this Sunday with the aim of
getting the mainland into the world trade
body by the end of the year. But analysts
believe the bombing would build on an
anti-American wave on the mainland that
could derail the talks.
"I don't think the talks will be cancelled,
but do not expect us to make any
concessions; in theory, politics and
business should not mix, but it is hard to
separate the two," the mainland negotiator
said.
The bombing will give ammunition to
mainland hawks - led by National People's
Congress (NPC) chief and former premier
Li Peng and Minister for Information
Industry Wu Jichuan - against being soft to
the US in the WTO talks.
Analysts said the NPC under Mr Li had
enlarged its powers substantially and would
capitalise on a growing tide of
anti-American feelings to block any WTO
deal reached by Mr Zhu's negotiators.
China Academy of Social Sciences
economist Lu Zhen said: "We have already
made whatever concessions we can make,
and I personally think that if we cannot get
into the WTO this year, it's really no big
deal."
Fudan University economist Lu Deming
said: "It is still better for China and the rest
of the world that we get into WTO earlier
than later, but given the changing political
mood - and we are really upset with the
bombing - it is hard to say how things will
develop."
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